Ben DeVane
Biography
Ben DeVane is a doctoral student in the GLS research group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. An advisee of Kurt Squire, Ben’s research investigates the intersection of youth culture, popular media and videogames, and the resulting design implications for games for learning. His master’s thesis, which is the basis for a forthcoming article in Games & Culture, examined how “at-risk” youth interpret Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. His current research focuses on designing games that use the values and practices of hip hop to help youth learn about finance and entrepreneurialism. A member of the CivWorld research team, Ben has, with Kurt Squire and Shree Durga, run a design-based research project that uses Civilization III, a historical strategy game, to help middle school-age youth understand history from a materialist perspective while developing information technology and game design skills.